Tony Aidoo Grabs Castle Car For ¢6,200
Sammy Awuku and Tony Aidoo
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The 4×4 vehicle, a 2005 model, was one of the several vehicles used by the previous Kufuor administration as part of the presidential fleet and estimated to cost not less than US$40,000 (GH¢80, 000).
Sammy Awuku described the transaction as ‘evil’ but did not trust that President Mahama would correct the ill.
“This is really evil, this is really criminal, this is very unethical, this is naked robbery and this is very Machiavellian,” Awuku parodied Pastor Mensa Otabil.
He insisted that this incident typified the corruption under the Mahama administration and urged all to be “vigilant across the borders, the DVLA and other agencies of state where these looting brigade and babies with sharp teeth will seek to transfer our stolen assets into their names”.
Tony Aidoo has however defended himself, claiming that he grabbed the car which did not have a gear box after it had been abandoned by the Kufuor government.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, Deputy Communications Director of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Sammy Awuku, who spoke on the ‘The People Must Know’ platform, provided evidence to support his claim.
These included an official receipt issued by a company (Shargraw Ventures) contracted by the state to auction the vehicle and a letter dated June 1, 2012 which was written and signed by Dr. Tony Aidoo to the Director of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) requesting a change of the vehicle’s registration number to a private one.
A similar acquisition of a state-of-the-art BMW in the year 1999/2000 by Dr. Aidoo triggered a debate over the paltry GH¢200 he paid for it.
Sammy Awuku and his colleagues found it intriguing that Dr. Tony Aidoo, who is often critical of his opponents, would purchase a state car at such a ridiculously low price.
He also cited how vociferous Dr Aidoo was in the year 2009 when appointees of the former NPP administration were said to have purchased their official saloon cars when they were leaving office.
Although the purchase was legitimate within the confines of age-old regulations, Sammy Awuku indicated that “Tony Aidoo was loudest in branding appointees of the NPP as nation wreckers.”
He also noted, “The age-old policy prohibits purchasing 4×4 vehicles.”
Surprised as he was, the NPP kingpin stated, “If a Ford Expedition vehicle with impeccable servicing history and part of President Kufour’s fleet of cars as a President could be sold for a paltry sum of GH¢ 6,200, then only God knows how much they have sold other state assets to themselves for.”
Sammy Awuku could not trust President Mahama’s ability to reprimand Dr Aidoo since “for a vice president whose boss (President Mills) constituted a committee to investigate his (President Mahama’s) involvement in inflating the prices of airplanes for the Ghana Armed Forces, we wonder if President Mahama has the moral high ground to do so.”
In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, Dr Aidoo said, “When you abandon a vehicle for about six years, standing at a private workshop and the vehicle is unserviceable and the vehicle is being sold to members of the public, a boarded vehicle, how many 4x4s do government departments auction?
“This is not a matter of my duty car being sold to me and then you will say it’s a 4×4 so you are not supposed to; people should get their facts right.”
On the issue about the cheap price at which he bought the vehicle, he said, “Well, if it’s peanut, you go and tell the auctioneer, when you have a car without a gear box”, insisting, “I didn’t do the valuation.”
He asked rhetorically, “When you have a car without a functional air condition unit, how much would you sell it, aside body works?
“It was even he (the auctioneer) who got me a mechanic; I had to import the gear box part from the United States of America for which there is also documentary evidence.”